Ray Orr provided a unique service for the Vietnamese people during his tour in Vietnam.

Raymond Franklin Orr Jr. was born on July 22, 1947 in Klamath Falls, Oregon, to Raymond and Margaret Orr. The Orr family also consisted of his sisters Corrine, Jeannie, Ruby and Sandra and his brother, Roy Rusk. Ray attended elementary school in Klamath Falls, but finished high school at nearby Weed High School in California.

Upon his high school graduation in 1965, Orr moved to Santa Cruz where his mother, Mrs. Margaret Shelvock had relocated. While living in Santa Cruz County, Ray may have worked in the local logging industry.

Raymond Orr enlisted in the US Marine Corps in Santa Cruz on January 21, 1966, and began a four-year tour. After completing basic and school-of-infantry training at Camp Pendleton, California, he remained at that Oceanside facility until March 31, 1967, when he reported for duty in Vietnam. Upon arrival in Southeast Asia, Corporal Orr was assigned to a Combined Action Platoon (CAP) in the Quang Tin province in the northern section of South Vietnam.
“The CAP program placed a squad of Marines and one Navy Corpsman in villages from Chu Lai to the DMZ in South Vietnam from 1965 to 1971. The Marines and Corpsmen of the CAC/CAP units attempted to isolate the people of select villages from the ravages of the war. CAP villages were no longer targets of the indiscriminate Search and Destroy mentality so prevalent during the Vietnam War.”

Ray, an avid outdoorsman and sportsman, shared with his mother his desire to go deer hunting in Siskiyou County California, upon his return later in November. He also hoped to acquire water-front property in Montana after his enlistment ended. Those goals would never be realized. On November 2, 1968, while on a patrol, Corporal Raymond Franklin Orr Jr. was killed in action by enemy small arms fire. His body was recovered and returned to the US in November. Following a funeral his remains were interred in the Golden Gate Nation Cemetery in San Bruno.

(VVMW; USDVA; SCSn November 7, 1968 1:2; CAP Marine.com, US Marines Combined Action Platoons (CAC/CAP) http://www.capmarine.com/, [16 September 2008])